Please join Alan Brough at a celebration at the State Library on Friday 20 March, 4 - 5pm when he announces the the top five books, as voted by Victorian readers in the State Library of Victoria’s Summer Read program 2008-9, and voter’s prizes.

Experimedia
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street, Melbourne

RSVP by Wednesday 17 March 2009

Telephone                   8664 7555
email                          learning@slv.vic.gov.au
book online                summerreadawards.eventbrite.com

Thanks Arnold for your thoughts on the challenges writers face when chosing to write as a vocation.

As part of the free Summer Read events across Victoria, Arnold will be appearing at:

Brunswick Library, Cnr Sydney Road and Dawson Street Brunswick on Wednesday 18 February, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
Author talk and readings recount a wonderful story full of myth and mystery, accompanied by acclaimed singer Anthea Sidiropoulos.

For more information phone Brunswick Library 9389 8600 or book online at http://summerread16.eventbrite.com

Warragul Library, 75 Victoria Street Warragul on Thursday 19 February 2009, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
Author talk and readings recount a wonderful story full of myth and mystery, accompanied by acclaimed singer Anthea Sidiropoulos

For more information phone Warragul Library 5622 2848 or 5622 2849 book online http://summerread34.eventbrite.com

Vote for Sea of Many Returns or SMS SEA to 13 46 88

Arnold Zable is next Summer Read author blogging from 27 - 30 January.

Arnold Zable is a highly acclaimed novelist, storyteller, and educator, whose books include Jewels and Ashes, The FigTree, Café Scheherazade and Scraps of Heaven. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and lives in Melbourne.

His book Sea of Many Returns is one of the books on the Summer Read shortlist.

Sea of Many Returns tells the story Xanthe who is translating her grandfather’s memoir; his story of leaving Ithaca as a young man and migrating to Australia, encountering race riots in Karlgoorlie and travelling to Melbourne. Absorbed, she slowly begins to understand her Ithacan father’s dark moods; the ache for the sea and the hum of the Ionian winds.

As part of the free Summer Read events across Victoria, Arnold will be appearing at:

• Brunswick Library, Cnr Sydney Road and Dawson Street Brunswick on Wednesday 18 February, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
• Author talk and readings recount a wonderful story full of myth and mystery, accompanied by acclaimed singer Anthea Sidiropoulos.
• For more information phone Brunswick Library 9389 8600 or book online at http://summerread16.eventbrite.com

• Warragul Library, 75 Victoria Street Warragul on Thursday 19 February 2009, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
  Author talk and readings recount a wonderful story full of myth and mystery, accompanied by acclaimed singer Anthea Sidiropoulos
• For more information phone Warragul Library 5622 2848 or 5622 2849 book online http://summerread34.eventbrite.com

What Arnold says about summer reading

“For years, summer was travel time. I usually had with me a book set in the country I was travelling in. I read at railways stations, on roadsides, on ferries and trains, in tents and hotel rooms, in workers’ quarters and backpackers’ hostels. There were times when passages mirrored the passing landscape. I approached Venice by sea with Thomas Mann’s ‘Death in Venice’, depicting the same approach via the Adriatic. In China, I travelled with the Tang dynasty poets whose poems reflected upon the joys and travails of journeying. While hitch hiking in the USA, Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ was the ideal companion.  The works of Lawrence Durrell and Greek poets George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis, were memorable company when travelling on the Ionian and Aegean. From these authors, among many others, I learnt much about the craft of writing about place and journeys.”